Moore As Unflappable As Bond Himself

June 14, 1985|By Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

NEW YORK — James Bond`s hotel room at the Pierre is something of a disappointment. There are no beautiful women with funny names sprawled on the bed. No frosty vodka martinis, stirred or shaken, on the coffee table. And, alas, no Doctor No.

There is only a polite, middle-aged British gentleman offering a chair and a glass of Perrier. It is hard to get used to Roger Moore without the usual archvillains and glamorous accouterments.

He seems so alone, so vulnerable, so ready for some really tough questions. But, like his celluloid counterpart, the 57-year-old actor who stars in the 14th Bond movie by producer Albert (Cubby) Broccoli, A View to a Kill, is urbane and unflappable.

He is certainly not ruffled by the recent newspaper interview with Pierce Brosnan, star of television`s Remington Steele, saying he likes the notion of being Moore`s successor as Secret Agent 007.

``He`d be splendid, I`m quite sure,`` says Moore, raising his right eyebrow ever so slightly to indicate that he has no intention of turning over the role that has made him a multimillionaire -- yet. The Moore eyebrows, fabled for their expressiveness, often lift when the always-courteous actor is curbing his wry wit.

He is equally unfazed by a question about whether he frets about aging. ``I don`t worry,`` he says. ``That`s why I`m Dorian Gray.``

Did he feel threatened by the comeback of Sean Connery two years ago in a rival Bond film portraying the agent as more human and less a cardboard superhero?

``I think the director, not being English, didn`t understand what was happening in development of

characters in terms of what is English and what is not English. Sean deserved better than that.`` Moore says that he and his friend Connery had dinner several times to compare notes about their respective stunts and villains.

It begins to dawn on one that it may be impossible to pierce this aura of ageless cool. He sits calmly, looking altogether perfect, from his golden tan to his gleaming Gucci loafers.

Certainly there must have been some clashes with Grace Jones, the striking rock singer and New York night club personality who plays the villainess, May Day. She is clearly Moore`s temperamental opposite.

His eyebrow lifts sharply. A good sign.

``Occasionally,`` he confides, ``I would have to unplug her cassette recorder. Such loud music. And that mad, hysterical laughter. Oh, I suppose she was a bit nervous of me because she was giving the odd interview where she was trying to point out that Hans, her boyfriend, would be far more suited to playing the role than myself. So presumably she was waiting for the day to arrive when I would read it and throw an ax at her.``

``I didn`t,`` he hastens to assure, smiling. ``But I had that as a sword of Damocles to hold over her head.``

Unlike Connery, who used to complain about being ``bottled in Bond,`` Moore says he has suffered no personal or professional identity crisis by associating himself for such a long time with such a popular role.

Asked how he views the role , he says simply: ``I see it the way that Cubby Broccoli wants to see it. He is the fellow in charge, and I`m not going to make waves.``

When he first took over as James Bond in 1973, in Live and Let Die, he tried to change some characteristics to make the role his own. For instance, he points out, his Bond never orders vodka martinis, as Connery`s did, although over the years other characters have begun ordering them for him.

Moore, the son of a London policeman, plays the role with more accent on camp and less on sex than Connery did, and he tries to ``get the fun out of it, let the audience know that if they want to scream hysterically, they can.``

``My attitude is that it`s completely unreal,`` he says. ``Here you`ve got this secret agent who`s recognized by every barman in the world and they know that he takes his vodka martinis shaken and not stirred. It`s crazy. What sort of secret agent is that? So you know that it is a spoof already before you start.

``I don`t like to play him as a true-blue hero,`` he continues. ``There`s always a moment of doubt in Bond`s mind. I mean, if I save the girl, I may get killed doing it. So I always let that go through my mind and then say, `Oh, to hell with it, I`ve read the script. I know I`m going to live.` ``

He enjoys that communion of camp with the audience. Praising Christopher Walken`s performance as Max Zorin -- a mysterious industrialist who intends to make a killing on the world microchip market by causing an earthquake in California`s Silicon Valley -- Moore says he especially loved Walken`s hysterical laugh when he plunges to his death at the end of the movie. ``He knew he`d be back and going to see it at the premiere,`` Moore says.